The effects of a player’s network centrality on resource accessibility, game enjoyment, and continuance intention: A study on online gaming communities

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Abstract

This study applies social capital theory to investigate how a player’s network centrality in an online gaming community (i.e., a guild) affects his/her attitude and continuance intention toward a Massive Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG). Analysis of 347 usable responses shows that players’ network centrality has a negative impact on their ties to players who belong to other guilds (i.e., non-guild interaction), but a positive effect on players’ access to resources. However, players’ network centrality fails to increase their perceived game enjoyment directly. Players’ resource accessibility and perceived game enjoyment play mediating roles in the relationship between network centrality and attitude toward playing an MMOG, which in turn influences game continuance intention. The results also show that although players’ non-guild interaction is negatively related to their resource accessibility from the networks, it is positively associated with perceived game enjoyment. The article concludes with implications and limitations of the study.

Highlights

► Social capital theory is examined in a Massive Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG). ► Online gaming communities (guilds) are selected as the research setting. ► Network centrality as internal social capital influences access to resources. ► Non-guild interaction as external social capital affects perceived game enjoyment. ► Access to resources and game enjoyment lead to MMOG attitude and continuance.

Introduction

The online game market is growing rapidly across the globe. Worldwide revenue from online games is estimated to go from 15.7 billion US dollars in 2010 to 29 billion US dollars in 2016 (DFC Intelligence 2011). Among online games, the rapidly expanding Massive Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) market has drawn digital marketers’ attention. MMOGs, such as World of Warcraft (WOW) and EverQuest, are ongoing games in which consumers play individually, in teams, or in communities within an evolving virtual world (OECD 2005). According to Wu (2010), the global MMOG market generated 6 billion US dollars in 2010. While consumers spend increasing amounts of money for high-quality online games, the MMOG global subscription market remains positive and competitive. MMOG market revenues are expected to reach 8 billion US dollars in 2014 (Wu 2010).

As the overall market of MMOGs grows, some MMOG companies are likely to feel increased competitive pressure in sustaining their market advantage. For example, the market share of Activision Blizzard, a dominant subscription-MMOG operator, declined from 60% in 2008 to 54% in 2009 (Screen Digest 2010), indicating a critical problem with players’ continuance intention in MMOGs. This means that subscription-based MMOGs require innovations to increase players’ stickiness to the games, resulting in their continued monthly subscription. Customer retention is a source of competitive advantage for these MMOG service providers, especially in light of the challenge presented by free and casual games.

When playing an MMOG, individuals develop their own social relationships in the virtual world. They tend to establish or join online gaming communities that are important social units in the MMOG context (Ducheneaut et al. 2006). Online gaming communities, known as player guilds, represent fertile ground for the development of social capital (Chan and Vorderer 2006). The magnitude of a player’s network centrality, which reflects the extent to which a player is embedded in an online gaming community (Ahuja et al., 2003, Wasko and Faraj, 2005), enhances his/her access to difficult challenges and valuable resources (e.g., in-game money, goods, equipment, skill masters, and services) from the community. In a similar fashion, many online service providers increasingly create virtual communities of practice with their electronic services to promote inter-customer interaction. Because individual transactions with an online service provider are motivated by the need to enhance consumer-to-consumer bonds in a virtual community (Cova 1997), a player’s favorable communal experience is likely to become associated with his/her positive attitudinal and behavioral responses to an MMOG; this in turn will increase personal consumption of products/services related to the MMOG.

Although a player decides to join a specific guild, that player can interact with players who belong to other guilds by forming social knots to take game challenges. Social knots are defined as groups created to complete a task of relatively short duration (Engeström et al., 1999, Nardi and Harris, 2006). In addition to within-guild ties, a player’s ties to those from other guilds (i.e., non-guild interaction) may provide another way for players to enjoy game adventures. If a player cannot get help or find opportunities for high-level challenges from his/her own guild, he/she is likely to collaborate with non-guild players to complete game tasks. The goal-oriented player can participate in other guilds’ activities and enjoy game experiences by developing short-term knots. These temporary groups and teams are dissolved when the goals of a specific challenge are achieved. Such task-based knots do not affect anyone’s membership in an online gaming community.

Despite both types of social interaction being of value to a player, it appears difficult to balance these social ties due to the player’s limited social time and energy. In some situations, a player may choose to collaborate with guild members and decline boundary-spanning activities to maintain his/her network centrality. Therefore, we argue that intra- and extra-guild ties represent two significant aspects of a player’s social life in an MMOG. To provide a complete picture of the social dynamics in an MMOG, researchers must examine these interactions simultaneously.

Recently, online gaming behaviors have been investigated by researchers in the fields of marketing, information technology/systems, media and communication, and psychology. Prior behavioral studies have tested a bundle of factors that influence customers’ intention toward playing online games or MMOGs, including usefulness (Hsu and Lu 2004), enjoyment (Wu and Liu, 2007, Koo, 2009), flow experience (Hsu and Lu, 2004, Lee, 2009), subjective norms (Hsu and Lu, 2004, Lee, 2009), presence (Teng 2010), Internet addiction (Lu and Wang 2008), escapism (Yee 2006), concentration (Koo 2009), service mechanisms (Wu et al. 2010), and system design (Teng 2010). The sociological antecedents of game continuance intention appear to be less defined and examined although some studies have tested the effects of social interaction with other players (Koo, 2009, Wu et al., 2010).

The main objective of this study is to examine how a player’s network centrality in an online gaming community leads to the formation of online game continuance intention from a social capital perspective. This study also takes a player’s non-guild interaction into account by following the dichotomy of internal and external social capital (Adler and Kwon, 2002, Stam and Elfring, 2008). We believe that the sociological approach will become an important stream that contributes to the research field of online games. We expect this perspective not only to enhance our understanding of the formation of players’ continuance intention toward an online game through the identification of their social capital, but also to offer a helpful way for MMOG companies to improve customer retention.

This study is organized as follows: First, the literature on online gaming communities and social capital theory is reviewed. Then, we present our research framework, hypotheses, methodology, and results. Finally, this study concludes with theoretical and managerial implications, as well as research limitations.

Section snippets

Online gaming communities: guilds

In MMOGs, the common networks of practice are called guilds. Guilds are online gaming communities of players who join together for instrumental or experiential purposes. For example, guild members can meet new friends, access within-guild resources, and share adventures and real-time information related to the game. With such positive expectations, players tend to participate and engage voluntarily in online gaming communities. These self-organized guilds become an intangible force that helps

Research framework and hypotheses

Fig. 1 illustrates the model of social capital and game continuance intention tested in the current study. According to social capital literature (Adler and Kwon, 2002, Putnam, 2000), we identify a player’s network centrality and non-guild interaction as internal and external social capital in the context of online gaming communities. In our model, these measures of social capital generate two types of network values: access to within-guild resources and perceived game enjoyment. These values

Research setting and samples

This study was conducted in Taiwan, where World of Warcraft (WOW) was selected as the research setting for data collection. WOW is a 3-D MMOG launched by Blizzard Entertainment Co. in 2005. Unlike free MMOGs, a monthly subscription is required for each player to access WOW. It had reached 12 million subscribers worldwide by October 2010 (Blizzard Entertainment 2010), exceeding 50% of the global online game market. WOW had also launched versions in several languages, including English and

Measurement model assessment

In order to assess the uni-dimensionality of the scales, CFA was used to evaluate our measurement model, construct validity and reliability. The results revealed that the overall fit of the measurement model was χ2 (155) = 413.86; CFI = 0.95; NFI = 0.92. These fit indexes all exceeded the recommended 0.90 levels (McDonald and Marsh, 1990, Hu and Bentler, 1995). The Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) (0.069) is lower than 0.08 as suggested by Steiger (1990). Therefore, the overall model

Discussion and implications

The purpose of this study is to investigate how a player’s network centrality within an online gaming community affects the formation of game continuance intention from the perspective of social capital theory. Based on two important types of social connections in an MMOG, we identify a player’s network centrality and non-guild interaction as his/her internal and external social capital in an online gaming community. Overall, the results confirm that a player’s network centrality attenuates

Limitations and future research

Although our findings are encouraging and insightful, the present study has several limitations. One is that we used only WOW as the research target, even though WOW is adequate to test our model empirically due to its representativeness among MMOGs in Taiwan. The one-site survey is likely to control several interfering variables, but its generalization to other MMOGs may be limited. Future research could collect data from different MMOGs to evaluate the external validity of our results. A

Conclusion

While the MMOG market is growing rapidly, the issue of online gaming communities and game continuance intention is seldom studied. To bridge this gap, this study applies social capital theory to investigate how a player’s network centrality and non-guild interaction (i.e., internal and external social capital) influence MMOG attitude and continuance intention. Based on prior research, we also identify two network values, access to within-guild resources and perceived enjoyment, to elaborate the

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